Description: Sterling Hayden (Johnny
Guitar) plays the steel-nerved Commander Dan Collier
who trains Navy Carrier Pilots during the Second World War
while battling the kind Lieutenant, Joe Rodgers (Richard
Carlson, Retreat, Hell!), who is more concerned with being
popular with his men than being their actual leader. In the
tradition of Henry King's
Twelve O'Clock High - Flat Top deals with
various psychological and personal conflicts that pilots
face as they move toward the thick of the battle. The film
employed actual newsreel footage and the effective usage
added realism to the picture. This action-packed WWII
classic was directed by Lesley Selander (Fighter Attack)
and features wonderful performances by William Phipps, John
Bromfield, Keith Larson and William Schallert as the young
pilots. Editor William Austin (Wichita)
received an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing..

The Film:

In an obvious attempt to recreate some of the power and impact of Henry
King's
Twelve O'Clock High,
Lesley Selander's Flat Top tells its story in flashback as Dan
Collier (Sterling Hayden), a senior officer, recalls from the bridge of
the carrier Princeton during the Korean War, the first squadron he
commanded on the ship during World War II. Arriving as green recruits,
the men resent Collier's grounding the most dedicated man in the
squadron (Keith Larsen) for ignoring a wave-off; even more so, they fail
at first to understand his sometimes harsh efforts at preparing them for
battle against the Japanese -- we also get to meet the various men of
the squadron, who are mostly identified by what they did in civilian
life -- William Schallert plays a poet-turned-pilot named "Longfellow";
John Bromfield plays an ex-football player nicknamed "Snakehips". Most
of the conflict centers on Collier and his efforts to make a good
executive officer out of Joe Rodgers (Richard Carlson), who was already
in the navy when he transferred to aviation but is too concerned with
being popular with the men to be a good commanding officer. Meanwhile,
the pilots face various conflicts, psychological and personal, as they
move toward the thick of battle.

The film begins away from the coast of Korea during the Korean War.
Commander Collier (Hayden) is in charge of air operations on a carrier,
or 'flat top'. When asked about how he first handled his job, he goes
back to the time of World War II, where the film takes place. Told in
flashback form, Collier recounts the war in the Pacific, working flight
ops on the same carrier with a new second officer, Lt. (j.g.) Joe Rogers
(Carlson), and getting a group of pilots ready for the tough fight to
come against the Japanese.

Image : NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

Flat Tophas a
color issue on
Blu-ray
from Olive Films. I found it most notable in the skin tones
and tried to give a sample below. If you take the large
version of the two images - that are only seconds apart in
the film - the facial skin tones go from tan to unhealthy
red. These fluctuations in temperature may be a registry
issue but bottom line is that within the same scene the
flesh tones can gravitate till some of the cast are looking
like cooked lobsters. It doesn't look right and I found it
distracting as I watched the film. The majority seems fine
but there are definitely unnatural color swings here. There
is still nice grain and decent detail. There is a lot of
stock footage - naval and aircraft - and it was interesting
when it was blended with the real feature although the
disparity in quality is quite obvious. I will try to
investigate further about this
Blu-ray
and I suspect the source may be compromised.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

It seems a faithful transfer without flaws.
There are no subtitles
and my
Oppo
has identified
it as being a region
'A'-locked.

Extras :

No supplements
- not even a trailer which is the bare-bones route that Olive are going
with almost all of their releases.

BOTTOM LINE: Personally, I wasn't that keen on Flat Top. Something about
it seemed very artificial to me. I had no problem with the
performances - although Hayden was his usual. The
Blu-ray image distracted me and I wasn't so taken with the film. To each
his own. I'd say this is worth a pass.

Gary Tooze

August 16th, 2013

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500
DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction.